By: Levi Vonk, SAF alum
The most disturbing aspect of Dodge’s 2013 “So God Made a Farmer” commercial was not the ad itself, but the reaction to it. Media outlets far and wide heralded Dodge for its rough-around-the-edges, down-to-earth approach. Even actor Rob Lowe was on board, tweeting: “God made a farmer. Yes. Not hip, no gimmicks. Not trying to be funny. Just great.” On the year’s glitziest night, Dodge had the courage to talk about the real America. Nevermind that Dodge’s goal—lest we forget—was to sell gas guzzling trucks. Nevermind that the small farmers they portrayed would probably never be able to afford a Dodge Ram that realistically costs $30,000, let alone the $16 million that Dodge dropped on its two minute commercial glorifying the austerity of the farmer America forgot. Nevermind that most purchasers of a Dodge Ram are not farmers, but people who place greater importance on image than functionality.
If I was a small farmer, I would be angry. There are pitifully few of them left as it is, mainly because corporate agriculture has forced Paul Harvey’s idyllic grower into the margins. The fact of the matter is, the narrative of the “small farmer” is by and large a false one, not because there aren’t men and women out there willing to put an honest day’s work into the fields, but because corporations have methodically killed them off for decades. And now another corporation is using the image of small farmers for their own profit? For shame.
We haven’t even gotten to farmworkers yet. And should we? If you’re reading this, you probably already have a list of grievances. That the new Dodge Ram costs almost three times as much as an annual farmworking salary. That the average farmworker works and lives in conditions so inhumane that the corporate bigwigs who sponsored the commercial could not even begin to imagine them. That by championing the small farmer, Dodge has forgotten the farmworker, rendering him nameless, faceless, and without significance or consequence. But this is nothing new. Even the Buy Local movement often leaves the farmworker behind, so it’s really no surprise that the corporate auto industry does the same. And perhaps this time, we can take consolation in the fact that the migrant worker was left out of the equation. Their labor is constantly exploited to sell cheaper produce, cheaper goods, and cheaper political ideology. At least they aren’t being used to sell cheap trucks too.